Rajar Q4 2016: National stations and networks

Reach

A -1.2% decrease in weekly reach over the final quarter of 2016 was not enough to dethrone Global Radio as the best performing UK radio network.

With 22.7 million listeners, the network has a lead of more than 5 million over second-place holder Bauer Radio – which recorded a reach of almost 17.6 million (down -1.5% QoQ).

Over the last year, however, both networks have boosted reach, with Global up 1.3% and Bauer up 6.8%.

Within Global’s portfolio, Chill and Smooth Extra recorded the biggest declines over the period, down -35.9% and -24.3%, respectively, while Heart Extra was down -34.2%. However, another new addition, The Arrow, was up 25%.

Meanwhile, Bauer’s best performing stations included Absolute 80s (+4.9%) and Classic Rock (+8.8%), while Absolute Radio nose-dived -19%, Kiss Fresh -19.5% and The Hits -18%.

BBC stations posted a mixed bag of results with Radio 3 up 7.2% after a bad Q3 and Radio 1 down -3.2%. meanwhile, Radio 4 was up just 0.9% and BBC Radio 6 Music down -0.6 (although the digital-only station was up a healthy 5.8% year on year).

Virgin Radio, which was revived last year, recorded one of the bigger declines in weekly reach of all recorded stations in the last quarter, down -15.6% period on period, but Q4 saw a much smaller decline as the station settles. Down -6.1%, the station now has 324,000 listeners.

Following a tough Q3, Sunrise was up a very healthy 41.4% – taking its reach to 461,000 – while talkSPORT boosted its reach by 5.3%.

It is worth noting that the market looks a little different to previous quarters following the arrival of newly reporting stations and different network compositions.

Share

As is usual, there was little change to the share of listening for most national stations or networks in the fourth quarter.

The long-standing market leader – Total Global Radio – was down -0.4%, but still claims almost 20% of the market.

The network was up 0.3 percentage points year on year – alongside BBC radio, 4 the highest yearly increase of any station or network.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2, the second-place holder, was up 0.6 percentage points to 17.3% – recovering from its lowest share in a year.

In third place, Bauer Radio (total) was down just -0.1 to claim a 15% share of the market.

All other increases and decreases were marginal.

Average hours

The top five most-listened to stations all increased their listening hours in the final quarter of the year; although there were some hefty declines elsewhere.

BBC Radio 4 (including 4 extra) maintained its position at the top – just – with a 7.8% QoQ increase taking total average hours per listener up to an impressive 12.4. Second place holder, BBC Radio 2, sits close behind with 12.1.

BBC 6 Music also did well (+7.5% QoQ) and now records a solid average listening time of 10 hours. The digital-only station was also up 8.7% YoY.

However, it was Smooth Extra that posted the most impressive increase in average listening hours, up 34.5% QoQ to 7.4 hours.

Sunrise Radio National (17.5%), Absolute Radio 70s (17.1%) and Magic (17%) also performed strongly, alongside Bauer’s Planet Rock which was up 9.3% QoQ and 20.6% YoY.

While it was only up 2.8% over the quarter, Global’s Radio X Network managed to increase average hours per listener by 30% over the year.

Global Radio’s new station The Arrow was clearly pointing in the wrong direction, however, was down by more than 33% over the quarter, while a quiet sports period meant that BBC Radio 5 live sports extra was down -30.8% and talkSPORT down -17.6%.

The biggest declines in average hours per listener, however, belonged to talkRADIO (-46.7%) and Virgin Radio (-36.1%), which now record just 2.4 hours and 2.3 hours per listener, respectively.